Rants and Rambles feat. Some Books

I think it's become pretty clear to everyone that there are many analogies for colonialism in Wide Sargasso Sea . But one of the strangest ones that occurred to me was the idea of Antoinette as Rochester's trophy. Rochester's master plan was to go somewhere exotic and take a wife back to England as a trophy. Granted, his intent of marrying a woman from the West Indies was to get money, but I wouldn't put it past him to plan on showing off Antoinette back in England. It's the classic "foreign person is a zoo exhibit" maneuver we see so often in colonialism. Of course, this isn't completely true for Antoinette since she's actually white Creole, but the idea of someone raised in a different culture seems to be enough for Rochester in this situation, especially since Antoinette is so connected to Christophine's culture. Antoinette is his prize, she is his proof that he accomplished what he came to do and didn't waste his time.  And to...

One of the more debated topics of The Stranger we’ve discussed is why Meursault is, well, the way he is. The Stranger makes us feel strange, and Meursault’s strong disconnection from us is the core of that odd feeling. People have attempted to give a psychological explanation to Meursault many times, and I read one of these explanations for my panel presentation. It was compelling, but almost too perfect. My group members and I found it a fascinating and mind-blowing article. It explained everything we found weird about Meursault. I myself found some relief in it because I could now understand Meursault.   But I feel guilty about that. Meursault isn’t really supposed to be understood -- in fact, nothing in The Stranger is necessarily supposed to be understood. It really is supposed to be left absurd and un-understandable.   We as humans have a drive to understand, to label, to categorize. When we come across something new that we don’t understand, we have to...